Fire Safety Plan Coquitlam

Who needs a fire safety plan in Coquitlam

Coquitlam Fire/Rescue applies Section 2.8 of the BC Fire Code as written: every building the Building Code requires to have a fire alarm system, every building with an assembly, care, treatment, or detention occupancy, every construction and demolition site under Section 5.6, and storage areas, flammable-liquid rooms, and hazardous-process areas that the Code calls out separately. In practice that is every strata and rental apartment building, every office and retail building with an alarm panel, every restaurant, school, daycare, and place of worship, and every industrial unit in the city.

Coquitlam adds two rules of its own. Any building that needs a fire safety plan also needs a pre-incident plan, a separate document written for the responding crews. And a plan has a shelf life: the owner must submit a revised fire safety plan and pre-incident plan after a renovation, after a change in occupancy, or when ten years have passed since the last submission, whichever comes first. Many Coquitlam buildings are running on plans from the early 2010s that are now past that line.

How Coquitlam Fire/Rescue reviews a plan

Reviews are handled by the Fire Prevention Division at Fire Hall 1 (1300 Pinetree Way, 604-927-6400). Coquitlam publishes its own Fire Safety Plan Guidelines, and the Division follows them closely:

• Everything electronic. The fire safety plan as one complete, unsecured PDF; the pre-incident plan as a second complete PDF; and the City’s Vital Information Form with every submission, new or existing building.
• Coquitlam’s standard drawing symbols on every site plan and floor plan, with only the symbols that actually appear on that site in the legend. Drawings are 11×17 colour, landscape, north at the top, with the building name on every sheet.
• A fixed layout: fire department information, site plan, floor plans, then Parts 1 to 7 (objectives, Fire Safety Director and warden duties, instructions to occupants, inspection and maintenance of fire protection equipment, reports and checklists, legal basis, definitions), each part with its own coloured tab, 14-point headings and 12-point text, double-sided pages, and single-sided drawings and checklists.
• Site-specific content only. The guideline says it plainly: do not include information that is not relevant to the building. A generic template with the wrong systems in it is returned.
• Payment on submission. The review fee is paid when the plan goes in.
• A letter or email of acceptance once the review is complete, which must be inserted at the front of the fire safety plan binder kept on site.

Coquitlam’s 2026 review fees, including GST, are $358.16 for high-rise buildings of seven storeys and up, $178.50 for all other buildings, $170.84 for a construction fire safety plan, and $115.71 for an amendment to an existing plan. We include the fee in your quote so there is one number.

The buildings we plan for in Coquitlam

Coquitlam is building faster than almost any city in BC, and its plans split between brand-new towers and buildings that have not been looked at in a decade. Since 2003 we have prepared more than 1,000 fire safety plans across BC; our Coquitlam work runs to four types:

• New concrete towers in Burquitlam and Lougheed along Clarke Road, North Road, Cottonwood Avenue, Whiting Way, and Foster Avenue. Thirty to forty storeys, completed 2020 to 2026, with a central alarm and control facility in the lobby, sprinklers throughout, firefighter elevators, and ground-floor retail units on the base-building alarm. A restaurant on Level 1 of a 37-storey tower needs its own tenant plan that explains what it controls (kitchen suppression, its two exits) and what the base building controls (the alarm panel, the sprinkler supply), and Coquitlam expects that split to be documented.
• Town Centre and Westwood Plateau residential around Lincoln Avenue, The High Street, and Pinetree Way, plus the wood-frame stratas of the 1990s in Eagle Ridge and along Bromley Street, McVicar Court, and Wessex Court. Many of these have plans older than ten years, which triggers Coquitlam’s resubmission rule.
• Commercial along Austin Avenue, Como Lake, Barnet Highway, and at Coquitlam Centre: restaurants, medical and professional offices, and retail units where the tenant plan, the base-building plan, and the pre-incident plan all have to agree.
• Industrial in Maillardville and Pacific Reach along Schoolhouse Street, Golden Drive, Clipper Street, and the Fraser riverfront, where the hazardous materials inventory and fire department access routes on the pre-incident plan matter most.

Our commercial fire safety plan page covers restaurants, retail, and offices in more depth.

Keeping a Coquitlam plan current

Coquitlam’s ten-year rule is the one to remember. If your plan was accepted before 2016, or the building has been renovated or changed use since, a new fire safety plan and pre-incident plan are due now, not at the next inspection. Between submissions the plan should be updated whenever the Fire Safety Director, property manager, service contractors, or building systems change; an amendment review costs $115.71. Fire drills are required at least once a year under BC Fire Code 2.8.3.2. Under the 2026 BC Fire Safety Act an out-of-date plan is an owner-liability issue, not a paperwork gap. Name and contact updates on plans we have written are free.

How it works with GetFirePlan

1. Firm quote in one business day, one flat fee that includes the City’s review fee. See what a fire safety plan costs in BC.
2. Site visit to confirm exits, equipment, shut-offs, and layout, and to photograph every fire protection system.
3. Draft in 5–7 business days: 11×17 colour CAD drawings in Coquitlam’s symbol set, the fire safety plan in the City’s seven-part layout, the pre-incident plan, and the Vital Information Form, sent to you for review before submission.
4. Electronic submission to Coquitlam Fire/Rescue with the fee, any revisions they request at no extra charge, and delivery of the accepted plan in a tabbed binder and PDF with the acceptance letter in front, plus wall plaques and a fire safety plan box if you need one.

Approval is guaranteed. If Coquitlam Fire/Rescue rejects a plan we prepared, we revise it until it is accepted.

Frequently asked questions

Our plan is from 2014. Do we really need a new one?
Yes. Coquitlam requires a revised fire safety plan and pre-incident plan when ten years have passed since the previous submission, whether or not anything has changed.

What is a pre-incident plan and why is it separate?
It is the firefighters’ version of your building: site and floor plans marked with access routes, connections, shut-offs, and hazards, plus the Vital Information Form. Coquitlam requires it as its own PDF for every building that needs a fire safety plan. We prepare both together.

What does Coquitlam charge to review a plan?
$358.16 for buildings of seven storeys and up, $178.50 for everything else, $170.84 for a construction plan, and $115.71 for an amendment, GST included, paid on submission.

We are a restaurant in a new tower. Does the strata’s plan cover us?
No. The base building’s plan covers the shared systems; your unit needs its own tenant fire safety plan covering the kitchen suppression, exits, and staff procedures, tied to the building’s alarm.

Do you handle construction fire safety plans in Coquitlam?
Yes. Every construction and demolition site in Coquitlam needs one under Section 5.6; our construction division at constructionfiresafetyplans.ca prepares those. Request a quote and we reply within one business day.